Lately, it’s becoming increasingly clear that President Obama’s proposed usage of the “chained CPI” is just another scam designed to trick Social Security recipients into thinking that his proposed cuts to Social Security aren’t really cuts at all. According to the White House, they are just “technical adjustments”. What a crock!

As I have studied exactly what the chained CPI is, the more I realize it’s anything but just a technical adjustment, it’s a Social Security cut. Frankly, I’m very insulted that the Obama administration actually seems to think that seniors and disabled who depend on Social Security for our survival are so stupid and naïve that we can be easily tricked into believing something else.  Apparently, President Obama must not be embarrassed to be the first Democratic president to even suggest cutting one of the greatest social programs ever.  If President Obama is so hell-bent on cutting Social Security, merely to satisfy the GOP, he ought to at least have enough guts to just admit it.

In fact, his Press Secretary, Jay Carney, recently admitted as much. After all, the GOP has “asked” (i.e., demanded) a few things over the past few years and the president has mostly told them , “no.” So why is he so willing to go along with this outrageous idea now? Last November, President Barack Obama won the election with an overriding consensus of voters, and the Republicans were handed a very significant defeat. The president also ran on a platform that promised that both Social Security and Medicare would be left alone. Obviously, if the American people have thought that cutting Social Security was okay , they probably would’ve voted for Mitt Romney. A large part of the presidents supporters voted for him on the assumption that he would leave Social Security alone, and the polls show that.

Basically, as far as I can tell, the chained CPI is a very skewed method, the Obama administration is suggesting should be used as a tool to calculate Social Security cost-of-living increases (a.k.a. COLAs). It has been abundantly shown that this chained CPI method of calculating COLAS doesn’t really actually calculate the true cost of living increases in a way that takes into account actual inflation, and other issues. One of these issues that isn’t taken into account is the rising out-of-pocket health care costs that Social Security recipients increasingly incur; healthcare costs that should be paid by Medicare. However, since Medicare pays for less and less all the time, the burden of these out-of-pocket costs falls on us.

The logic, if you can call it that, behind the chained CPI is the ridiculous belief that, if Social Security recipients don’t receive the same amount of benefits each month we will have the opportunity of purchasing a cheaper item, or finding some type of a suitable substitute. That not only assumes that we will be able to find a substitute item, but that we will also be able to find less expensive item. In the real world, which I have a serious problem believing that President Obama is part of now, most of the time there simply isn’t a substitute item. As far as us finding a cheaper, less expensive item, most of us already buy things at the lowest price possible. Those wise people at the White House haven’t got it yet that those of us on Social Security have already been placed in this unenviable position for many years. The fact is, Social Security has always been inadequate. We haven’t been able to buy more expensive merchandise for many years, if ever.

The main problem with the White House’s way of thinking is that they don’t take into consideration that 20% to 40% of our monthly income is being spent on out-of-pocket medical expenses. Asking us to substitute a less expensive item or find some type of substitute is mostly next to impossible. If you have a medical need that is only fulfilled by Product X, you can’t just start using Product Y instead. In the same case, if you use Product X and it is already the least expensive item, how can you possibly buy anything cheaper? When placed in this tough position, many Social Security recipients will be forced to either do without some type of much-needed medication or healthcare item, or divert some of their money away from paying rent, groceries, utility bills, and other expenses. Of course no one at the White House, including the president ever even takes any of these things into consideration when coming out with this type of bullshit.

Hopefully, cooler heads in the Democratic Party will prevail and the president’s proposal to use the chained CPI will be voted down, once it reaches the halls of Congress. I sincerely hope that this growing rift in the Democratic Party, created by this foolhardy and unnecessary proposal by President Obama will not jeopardize the Democratic Party’s chances of taking back the House of Representatives in next years midterm election. President Obama needs to stop it realize that he stands to lose big time if this outrageous proposal does pass. He just may well jeopardize any plans to improve this countries situation, if he alienates not only his own party, but the support of the American people. A very large percentage of people think that the chained CPI is a very bad idea, as the polls clearly show

. If angry enough, these same people could seek some payback down the road. Whether or not he realises it, he could be very well setting up a Democratic defeat in the 2016 election.

Related articles

• Obama’s Chained CPI Offer is a Bad Idea
• Another Poll Shows Americans Oppose Chained-CPI Cut for Social Security
• ‘Chained CPI’ Could Hit Middle-Class Retirees Hardest
• Top 5 Myths About Chained-CPI, Debunked
• Chained CPI Is Very Unpopular With Dems and Republicans
• Chained CPI: The wrong solution to a problem that doesn’t exist

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